173 replies to this topic

[HK70]

I had a nice 4 day weekend this past weekend. Crossing the border on foot this morning I was a little suprised they have further divided the ped crossers. Once you enter the customs building the left side is still for Sentri. They have two other lanes one for persons with some type of documents and the other lane for persons without documents. I was trying to make sense of the signs over head but I was little confused. It said something like WITI documents or something like that. I will have to pay more attention tommorow. They had an agent right as you entered the building separating the people into the appropiate lanes. I cruised by all this with the sentri.

[CB]

did you apply for a separate pedestrian sentri pass, or is this the vehicle pass you are using?

[otayBill]

I heard they made a special pedestrian lane for those who have official documents; passports and visas. Those still crossing with drivers licenses go into a slower lane.

[HK70]

did you apply for a separate pedestrian sentri pass, or is this the vehicle pass you are using?

Hey CB, I use my Sentri car pass when I cross via a Sentri Ped. From my understanding there is no separate pass if you only wanted to use Sentri Ped.

About 4 years ago the Sentri ped pass was free and separate from the Sentri car pass but a few years ago they combined into one card to be used for both.

[HK70]

I heard they made a special pedestrian lane for those who have official documents; passports and visas. Those still crossing with drivers licenses go into a slower lane.

I thought it was mandatory that you needed a passport to cross. That is why I was confused by the signs with documents and without. But you could be right. Both lines seemed to be about the same yesterday.

[Buen Amigo]

The line that say is for no documents is for the Illegals. That line just goes through a revolving door and takes you back to Mexico.

Naa i don't know really. It just sounds funny when you guys say a line for people with no documents.

[otayBill]

I thought it was mandatory that you needed a passport to cross.

They are not enforcing it yet. My brother crossed with only his driver's license.

[Buen Amigo]

Yeah, my brother does not have his passport either, and they come over to my house often. Still havn't been detained. I mean really, what are they going to do? People got other bills to pay, before worrying about a passport. What can BP do? Ask you more questions, give you a bit of a hard time, but eventually have to let you go anyways. It's all just a money making scheme.....

[HK70]

In general I don't understand people bitching about how much a sentri or passport costs. Let see sentri is like $125 for 5 years so $25 bucks a year sounds like a steal to me for not waiting in line. I think a passport book is about $125 bucks for 10 years a little over 10 bucks a year to travel does not sound like very much to me. Or you get the pass port card at something like $40 bucks. I guess people must just love standing in hour long lines

[Keyno]

The line that say is for no documents is for the Illegals. That line just goes through a revolving door and takes you back to Mexico.

Naa i don't know really. It just sounds funny when you guys say a line for people with no documents.

Raise your hand who wants a line for "people with passports only"!

Hate waiting behind some cheapo, having to wait for his/her reasons for not getting one.

[HK70]

Well I guess it is that time of year ped lines are huge in the morning. The line of cars to get back in TJ last night was super long. They need to increase the number of lanes going into Mexico now. Maybe Mexico needs to have something similiar to Sentri to get back into Mexico I would pay for that for those few times I use my car for work. Even when I cross after 9pm at night to do some shopping it can be a 30 or 40 minute wait to get back into TJ. Oh well you got roll with it otherwise it can drive you loco.

[TJDave]

Well I guess it is that time of year ped lines are huge in the morning. The line of cars to get back in TJ last night was super long. They need to increase the number of lanes going into Mexico now. Maybe Mexico needs to have something similiar to Sentri to get back into Mexico I would pay for that for those few times I use my car for work. Even when I cross after 9pm at night to do some shopping it can be a 30 or 40 minute wait to get back into TJ. Oh well you got roll with it otherwise it can drive you loco.

I saw that last night... the line to get into Mexico was 2+ miles long... I felt sorry for all the cars as I passed them on my motorcycle

[ag2u]

In general I don't understand people bitching about how much a sentri or passport costs. Let see sentri is like $125 for 5 years...

Actually it is $122 which is around $2. per month or 50 cents per week. I know some would rather pay a bus scammer $5 to walk them to the front or to sit on a bus for an hour than the 47 cents per week.
Even if you cross only once per month it is the best $122. you can spend IMO.

[Scribbles]

Has anyone noticed longer waits at the border in the past few months?

[zunigan]

I was told the last time I crossed back to USA that having a passport is not a law. This was told to me by the border patrol. He also told me they at this time can not tell a citizen he can;t come back into their country. I have no idea if he knows what he is talking about. I have a passport and anyone that goes with me has one to. I still see people crossing with only a DL and Birth Cert.

[Keyno]

Raise your hand who wants a line for "people with passports only"!

Hate waiting behind some cheapo, having to wait for his/her reasons for not getting one.

Well my wish came true...another line for the i don't have a passport line, and the wait is long. Yippier!

[Buen Amigo]

Those of you who cross with your vehicle. The one week where going into TJ for me seemed like forever.

I guess that one week, they decided to start using the barriers/rails that go up and down. For example, the barrier would go down, you drive through, pull up close to the barrier, and wait for about 10 seconds. The the light would turn green, and you would go. Or if it turned red, the it would raise up, and you would be sent to revision. That process would hold up the line big time. Yeah, i guess it helps them with who to send to the revisions, since sometimes, i slide by when i get the red light. But that wait to get into TJ would take about an hour....

But lately they have not been using the barriers, and crossing into TJ is much better.

[George Costanza]

It seems like they do whatever they can to discourage business from both sides of the border. Those gates going up and down is a complete joke. I think they still use them in Otay and can back up traffic on a daily basis.


My friends as work that live in TJ say they are getting to the border a little earlier every week just to make it to work on time.

I have been getting to the border 30 mins sooner than I was last year.

[TJGringo]

They had a news crew at the border a few weeks back. There has been increased violence at the San Ysidro crossing.
It was on channel 10 news and they showed carsd that were scraped out and interviewed people that cross everyday including Americans (anyone here?) and they all said the border is now ridiculously long and people try to cut in all the time and will damage your car to save on the commute.

[Buen Amigo]

damage your car to save on commute? How? You damage someones car, you gotta stop and exchange insurance information. Where are they saving on commute?

Or if it were me, and someone scrapped my car, i would chase them down, there would definately be a fight. I still dont see how they would save on the commute?

In the sentri lane the other day there was a police officer blocking the entrance to that lane. Only let cars that had the Transponder sensor through. Other cars had togo around. Some non-sentri cars go through there to drop people off. Other non-sentri cars go through there and cut into the normal lane right under the bridge. I guess he was trying to prevent that. But it was only for a day. Now everyone is back at it. People without sentri should just learn to leave earlier......